Investigating Pain Processing in the Brain, Brainstem, and Spinal Cord With fMRI

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Chicago,
Illinois60611

Purpose:

New advances in medical imaging have allowed for the measurement of brain activity related
to chronic pain. In addition to the brain, the investigators aim to use functional magnetic
resonance imaging to investigate pain processing in the brainstem and spinal cord in healthy
subjects and chronic neck pain patients. The information gained from this study will
increase the investigators understanding of how chronic pain is encoded in the nervous
system and assist in developing more effective treatment strategies.

Study summary:

The experimental design is an observational (non-interventional) cross-sectional clinical
study. The principal goal of the proposed research is to utilize functional magnetic
resonance imaging to further investigate and characterize pain-related neural activity at
the level of the brain, brainstem, and spinal cord in healthy subjects and chronic neck pain
patients. Healthy subjects and chronic neck pain patients will be recruited and participate
in a single session of data collection. For both the healthy and chronic neck pain groups,
painful thermal stimuli will be applied over the skin of the upper extremity while whole
brain, brainstem, and cervical spinal cord functional images are acquired (on separate
scans). For the chronic neck pain group, additional scans (brain, brainstem, and cervical
spinal cord) will be acquired while the subjects rate their spontaneous chronic neck pain.

Criteria:

Healthy subjects must meet all of the following inclusion criteria to participate in this
study:
1. Age between 21 and 60 years old
2. Right-handed; not currently experiencing significant pain
3. No history of a chronic pain syndrome such as fibromyalgia, complex regional pain
syndrome, chronic low back pain, etc.
Chronic neck pain patients must meet all of the following inclusion criteria to
participate in this study:
1. Age between 21 and 60 years old
2. Right handed; neck pain > 3 months duration; moderate neck pain score > 30 on VAS
(0-100) 3) No history of a chronic pain syndrome (fibromyalgia, complex regional pain
syndrome, chronic low back pain, etc.) other than chronic neck pain and its
associated symptoms.
Participants meeting any of the following exclusion criteria at baseline will be excluded
from study participation:
1. Non-English speaking
2. Signs of upper extremity sensation loss; history of significant cerebrovascular
disease including (but not limited to) epilepsy, stroke, tumor, multiple sclerosis,
meningitis
3. History of major head trauma with sustained loss of consciousness; history of
neurosurgery, ENT surgery, spine surgery, or cardiac surgery
4. History of cardiac pacemaker or neurostimulator implantation
5. History of significant medical illness including cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled
diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
severe asthma requiring hospitalization for treatment, renal insufficiency requiring
dialysis, etc.
6. History of alcoholism or consistent drug use; current infection or fever; pregnancy
(or possible pregnancy)
7. History of metal working or injury with shrapnel or metal slivers
8. Claustrophobia
9. Piercings that are unable to be removed and tattoos older than 30 years